How do you put a silver lining on a load of poop?
That disgusting tax plan that the Republicans jammed through just might be the best thing that they could have done, for this country, and for the Democrats, if the Dems play their cards correctly.
God knows there are enough negative things that they can throw in the Republican’s faces, but the Democrats also must to be able to run on something positive.
How about trying this? Hmmm. That tax legislation just gave a $1.5 trillion dollar gift, almost exclusively to the top 1% … or even less. That means if the Democrats take control and have the ability to rescind that tax cut, they will have $1.5 trillion dollars to use … without having to even raise taxes on 99% of American tax payers.
How about …
- Pouring a bunch of that $1.5 trillion into infrastructure? Now THAT should really affect jobs for the middle class, and therefore provide much needed wages. Oh and our infrastructure just happens to badly need it as well. Repair aging bridges. Overhaul the ancient software that is still used for air traffic control in our country. Upgrade the aging power grid … not just here but how about also in Puerto Rico? All of that is not exactly just “make work” stuff.
- One thing Democrats must absolutely guarantee is that the contracts for those infrastructure projects will be fairly awarded to the best offers made for them. There can be none of that pork barrel crap that Congress is so fond of awarding – by both Republicans and Democrats.
- Reinstate the Obamacare insurance requirement – not because they want to take people’s choice away, but because no workable health plan anywhere in the world can be sustainable without requiring healthy people to have at least some insurance. No insurance plan is ever going to be either affordable, or sustainable, if only the sick and elderly have insurance.
- Reinstate the subsidies which allow insurance companies to provide lower rates for needy recipients, while protecting those subsidies so that they do not just represent freebies for the insurance companies.
- Reform the prescription drug system. The prices we pay for prescription drugs are insane compared to almost everywhere else in the world.
How about some other non-monetary positives …
- Once again, put people in charge of government agencies who not only actually have some expertise in the agencies that they lead, but who also are not life long opponents of the agencies that they are chosen to lead! What an Earth shattering concept!
- Forget that trite Make America Great Again nonsense. How about make the State Department Great Again … or at the very least make it Respected Again?
- Trump was big on doing everything he could to undo everything possible that Obama did by using the power of Executive Orders. Well, back at ya Trump.
If Trump does somehow survive to run again in 2020, let’s hope that whomever runs against him does their homework on the type of garbage that Trump pulled against Hillary, particularly in the debates.
If you are a follower of my previous editorials, you may remember editorial # 017 – Back the F*** off, you creep.
https://pearlsnmblog.wordpress.com/2017/08/24/back-the-f-off-you-creep-an-editorial/
As I said at the top of this editorial, hindsight better be 20-20 if not even clearer than that. The Democratic nominee should be locked and loaded for whatever kind of nonsense Trump tries. Like when Hillary said that Trump would be a puppet for Putin. Trump’s totally juvenile response was “I’m not a puppet. You’re a puppet. You are.” Don’t you just wish that Hillary would have stopped dead, looked at him and said something like …
“Excuse me. Is that the best you’ve got? That is the kind of thing I would have expected the class bully to say to Chelsea when she was in the third grade. How about trying to have at least an ounce of respect for the American people, and for the office you supposedly aspire to?”
It’s too late for that to do Hillary any good, but you would like to think that someone like Kirsten Gillebrand or Kamala Harris or whomever rises to the occasion, might have been listening rather closely to those debates.
Both in 2018 and 2020, when the disasterous tax legislation comes up, and Republicans repeat those baldface lies about how the plan is benefiting the lower and middle class – certainly not the wealthy, how about throwing Trump’s own words right back at them? Within days after signing the tax legislation into law, Trump told some of his friends at a Mar-a-Lago dinner that “You all just got a lot richer.”
That should make a great ad in any Congressional race. First, show one of the many clips of Trump saying how this was a big, beautiful tax cut for the middle class, that it was certainly not going to benefit him personally, and that his rich friends were not going to be happy with him. Then seamlessly juxtapose that with his “You all just got a lot richer” comment. Trump should be the gift that keeps on giving when it comes to the 2018 and the 2020 Congressional elections.
Just as long as the Democrats avoid doing what my favorite comedian Louis Black once said about the Republicans who were trying to impeach Bill Clinton. “The Republicans got Clinton firmly in their sights, pointed the gun at him, and then turned the gun around and “Blam” – they shot themselves in the face.”
Let’s hope the Democrats have learned at least a few lessons.
Welcome to Pearl's New Mexico Blog 